Continued support of the Middle East peace process was a major concern for Egyptian Pres. Hosni Mubarak in 1997. Early in the year Mubarak held talks with both Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasir ˋArafat and King Hussein of Jordan, and during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switz., in February, he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In March Netanyahu visited Cairo to discuss the peace process as well as espionage charges against an Israeli Arab, ˋAzzam ˋAzzam, whom Egypt’s state security court sentenced in August to 15 years of hard labour for spying for Israel. Another meeting between the two leaders was held in May in Sharm ash-Shaykh, Egypt. Also in May, Mubarak tried to revive Israeli-Syrian negotiations, meeting with Syrian Pres. Hafez al-Assad in Sharm ash-Shaykh for that purpose. By the end of 1997, the Middle East peace process was in such doldrums--despite Mubarak’s efforts--that Egypt decided not to attend the Middle East and North Africa Economic Summit in Qatar on November 16-18.

During the year Egypt attempted to mend fences with both Iran and Iraq. On May 6 Iranian Foreign Minister ˋAli Akbar Velayati visited Egypt to discuss bilateral relations with his Egyptian counterpart, ˋAmr Musa. Egyptian-Iraqi relations improved, and Egypt opposed the use of force after U.S. members of the UN Special Commission overseeing the elimination of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction were asked to leave Iraq. Consequently, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq ˋAziz visited Egypt on November 20.

In June Mubarak met Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi in Tobruk, Libya. The tangible result of the meeting between the two leaders was the decision to establish a joint free-trade zone and to construct a joint airport. The close relationship between Egypt and Libya became particularly controversial when U.S. officials claimed in September that the kidnapping of a prominent Libyan opposition leader, Mansur al-Kikhya, by Libyan agents in Egypt in December 1993 had been done in complicity with Egyptian security officers. Mubarak categorically denied the charges.

Sectarian tensions came to the forefront of public attention when Mustafa Mashhur, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, one of the two major political opposition organizations in Egypt, said in an interview in April that Copts (Egyptian Christians) should not serve in the Egyptian army and should pay a religious tax, which implied that Copts could not be trusted. The uproar that followed led to a claim by Mashhur that he was misquoted but left the impression that anti-Coptic feeling was strong even among the mainstream Islamic fundamentalists. Copts were again the target of terrorist attacks by Islamic militants in Upper Egypt. On February 12 militants of the al-Jamaˋa al-Islamiya (Islamic Group) attacked a Coptic church in Abu Qurqas, killing 10 worshipers and wounding at least 4. On March 13 militants suspected of belonging to the Islamic Group killed 13 people in the mostly Coptic village of Najˋ Dawud.

The Egyptian government’s struggle against the militants of the Islamic Group and the al-Jihad organization continued unabated but was marred by major setbacks in 1997. On September 18 a tour bus in Cairo was attacked, and the Egyptian driver and nine German tourists were killed. On November 17 militants of the Islamic Group attacked tourists in the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut at Luxor in Upper Egypt, killing some 60 foreign tourists, more than the total number of foreigners previously killed by Islamic militants in Egypt since their violent campaign began in 1992. It was regarded as the bloodiest incident by Islamic militants since the assassination of Anwar as-Sadat on Oct. 6, 1981. The militants had a number of demands, among them the release of their spiritual leader, Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, who was serving a life sentence in the U.S. for plotting to blow up the World Trade Center in 1993. The booming Egyptian tourist industry, which brought in $3 billion per year and had an estimated record number of 4.2 million visitors in 1997, suffered a major blow. Mubarak reacted by increasing the security measures in tourist areas.

Unless Mubarak opened up the political system by allowing free elections (the last free elections in Egypt were held in January 1950) and poured massive aid to the underdeveloped regions of Upper Egypt, the recruitment of militants among unemployed and impoverished Egyptian youth was likely to continue. On February 23 the People’s Assembly approved a presidential decree extending martial law for three more years. Martial law allowed detention without trial and extended the jurisdiction of military courts to civilians. One of the basic demands of all political opposition parties in Egypt was the abrogation of martial law.

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